Chapter 190 Water Stones (1/2)

We dived deeper, inside the pond. When I wasn't able to see anything, I closed my eyes. I focused and tried to awaken my Darkness Perception. After about 40 seconds, I opened my eyes and my vision awakened. I motioned to Frosty, for it to take the lead, and we dived deeper, towards the bottom of the pond.

Frosty headed straight to the location of the Water Stones. After a while, we reached the bottom of the pond. The only way to go for us, was to turn left and follow the tunnel further. Frosty did just that, while I swam after it. The tentacle creatures were nowhere to be found at that moment, but I didn't hope for them to not appear. I knew they could appear any second, the deeper we went.

We've been under water for about 2 minutes, and the Water Stones were still not in sight. After another minute, we arrived at a large opening of the tunnel, almost like an underwater cave. 'So, this is where those tentacle creatures are' I thought. Frosty looked behind and pointed at a certain location. There were 2 blue stones, edged into the wall, where Frosty pointed. I knew I had very little time, so I swam there as fast as I could, in order to grab those stones.

I made some disturbance, but I didn't care anymore. It was either, get them or leave. I arrived in front of the Water Stones and thought about depositing them in my Storage Feather. The stones disappeared, which was a sign of my feather collecting them. What appeared on the other hand, were the tentacle creatures, quite angry at that.

I quickly turned around and started swimming back. Frosty was already on its way back, so I didn't have to worry about it getting left behind. The problem was me, not Frosty. I was not as fast in water, as I was on the ground. The tentacle creatures behind me gained on me pretty fast.

'If I just swim, I have no way of outspeeding them. I need to get faster!' I thought. It was easier said than done. As a human being, I was able to swim, but no matter how strong I was, a creature that was born in the water and was adapted to it 100 percent, was not something a land dwelling being could beat at swimming. I decided to give a certain idea a try.

'So far, I've been using my hands to swim, just like any other human being, but what if I use a skill?' I thought. At this stage, my air was almost gone, the pursuers were much faster than me and sometimes, my ideas might've been stupid, but usually saved my life. I turned around, to face the tentacle creatures, and used the Pressure Dagger skill, but without holding a dagger in my hands.

I punched, as if I would an enemy, with the real skill. Due to the friction of water, my muscles started to heat up rather quickly, but a miraculous thing occurred and I did speed up. Although I was happy at first, my face quickly lost that happy expression. The reason? One of the tentacle creatures became much faster. 'It must be the leader… I'm in deep shit, if it catches me' I thought and punched as much as I could.

The creature was getting closer but I also managed to punch my way to the bottom of the pond. My air was almost non-existent at that point, and only willpower kept me going. I had about 30 more seconds, until I reached the surface. But, the tentacle creature had different plans. It managed to catch up to me close enough, so that one of its tentacles caught my leg. 'Shit!' I thought and punched the tentacle, but nothing happened.

I was in the water, so my strength was limited by a lot. The creature itself, was like rubber, punching it, didn't produce much of a result. I tried swimming but the tentacle kept pulling me backwards. 'This is bad. I have no way of using Yellow Dust here, my weapons are useless as well. My strength limited… How do I break free?' I thought. I then felt something moving on my arm. It was Frosty, who became a tattoo again. 'It's worth a try, I might as well try and freeze it' I thought and placed my right hand on the tentacle.

'FREEZE!' I screamed in my mind. I could feel extreme coldness seeping from my arm. The tentacle holding my leg, froze almost immediately. I was surprised by that myself, but I had no time anymore. My air was gone, the only thing I could do was swim. The tentacle broke off from my leg and I could hear a screech coming from the bottom, but I didn't pay attention to it. My only goal, was to swim.

Before I reached the surface, my vision got darker and darker, until it went completely black. I lost consciousness, due to the lack of air. I don't know what happened, in the time I passed out, but when I woke up, I was outside the pond. I could hear Frosty's cries, then a loud splash. When I finally woke up, I found myself laying on the ground, while the tentacle creatures emerged from the pond.